Acknowledgments

Pioneer manuscripts are the key to understanding this story. The archives of the LDS Church Historical Department, Utah State Historical Society, Southern Utah University, Brigham Young University and University of Utah have yielded many such documents time after time, thanks to the interest and willing cooperation of their staff members. Individual families in southern Utah have also been generous in sharing family records. Fortunately, Special Collections, Sherratt Library, Southern Utah University, acquired the files of historian William R. Palmer from his family, thus preserving many critical sources on early iron-making operations. Like him, I have shared in the sheer excitement of finding hitherto-unknown journals that shed light on aspects of the Iron Mission.

The search for answers also introduced me to the records of the Deseret Iron Company, to scholarly works dealing with the history and techniques of iron- and steel-making back to the eighteenth century, to LDS Church records, to historical works about Utah and to the deed books of the Iron County Recorder’s Office. The institutions that have been especially helpful are the Southern Utah University and Brigham Young University libraries, the Utah State Historical Society, St. James Foundation, LDS Church Historical Department, Utah State Archives and Records Service and the Iron Mission State Park.

Concerning my own efforts, I have walked or driven over the trails by which the pioneers entered and left the area, including the roads they built into the canyons for coal and iron. I have personally examined the townsites and holdings of the Deseret Iron Company and corresponded with historians and scientists at learned societies and universities in the British Isles (including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leeds) and with American iron- and steel-making organizations. I have interviewed curators of preserved and restored blast-furnace sites, professional geologists, chemists and physicists from the University of Utah, Brigham Young University, University of Missouri (Rolla) and Southern Utah University, and spoken to them about operational blast furnaces and refractories. Further, I carefully examined the restored Maramec Spring Iron Works, St. James, Missouri, and would like to thank the staff of the Maramec Spring Historical Park whose preservation of the iron works there provided crucial clues to many secrets of the Deseret Iron Company’s operations.

During the preparation of this book, I made many visits to the old iron works in Iron County. In fall 1982, when city road crews partially uncovered the pioneer blast furnace site at 100 East 400 North in Cedar City, I obtained specimens of brick, furnace lining, cinders and slag. Dr. William T. Parry, professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Utah, analyzed them and coauthored an article with me [“The Demise of the Deseret Iron Company: Failure of the Brick Furnace Lining Technology,” Utah Historical Quarterly 56 (winter 1988): 23–35].

I express appreciation to Southern Utah University, which generously granted me permission for sabbatical leave in spring 1982 to work on this project, not technically in my professional field. Even with major assistance, preparing the manuscript has consumed every summer and free evening since that time and, following my retirement in 1985, has been my full-time task, precluding alternate and probably less-expensive interests.

I likewise express deep appreciation to scores of individuals and organizations who provided important clues and bits of information that have helped document the work. Many individuals have willingly shared their time and talents in answering my inquiries. Although they are too numerous to include here in full, I must single out Leonard J. Arrington, Blanche Clegg, Janet Seegmiller, Alva and Zella Matheson, Lavina Fielding Anderson, Val Wilson, P. T. Reilley, Inez Cooper, A. Thomas Challis, Norm Forbush, Robert Elgin and particularly York Jones, whose specific contributions to my understanding of the structural layout of Cedar City’s Plat A fort were essential to interpreting the whole history.

Gratitude is too pale a word to express my feelings for my wife, Maxine, and our children—Russell, Randy, Andrea, Robert and Steven— who willingly took “vacations” in the libraries and fields of most of the western states and in areas as far away as Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska; who saw family funds go for photocopies instead of ice-cream cones; and who regularly saw their father disappear into his files. They have remained interested and supportive even during my most obsessive moments. Special recognition is also given to Kathryn Hanson Shirts, daughter-in-law and editor par excellence, without whom the project would never have been completed.

I hope that this product of 30 years’ research will prove helpful to other historical and genealogical researchers interested in understanding the faith, courage and sacrifice of those who helped subdue this wild and beautiful land.

—Morris A. Shirts

Coauthor’s Acknowledgments

In 1994 my father-in-law, Morris A. Shirts, suffered health problems that made it difficult for him to continue working toward the publication of A Trial Furnace: Southern Utah’s Iron Mission. At this point, because of my interest in his research and my admiration for what he had accomplished, we began collaborating to finish the book. Although Dr. Shirts had researched the production of iron after the initial furnace run in southern Utah in fall 1852, he had not yet written the corresponding chapters. Relying on his notes as well as on my own additional research, I completed the story through the decline of the Iron Mission. In November 1996, two months before he died, Dr. Shirts read over the new draft chapters and gave his approval.

The sections “Preparing for War” and “Disaster at Mountain Meadows” in chapter 14 are based on the following unpublished draft articles by Dr. Shirts: “Conditions Which May Have Triggered the Mountain Meadows Massacre,” August 1993; “Mountain Meadows Massacre—Another Look,” March 1991; “The Old Spanish Trail and the California Road through Mountain Meadows,” January 1990, 15 February 1990 and 21 February 1990; and “Cane Springs: Its Physical and Historical Relationship to Mountain Meadows,” 1 May 1989. They are located in Morris A. Shirts Collected Papers, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Dr. Shirts’s extensive research into sites at Mountain Meadows lies beyond the scope of this book, but his insights are presented in Morris A. Shirts and Frances A. Smeath, “Historical Topography: A New Look at Old Sites on Mountain Meadows” (to be published by Southern Utah University Press). The concluding chapter on the causes for the failure of the iron works was adapted from a talk presented by Dr. Shirts to the Mormon History Association on 3 May 1986 as well as from the paper he coauthored with Dr. William Parry on the weakness of the furnace lining, published in the Utah Historical Quarterly (as noted earlier).

Within the book, spelling, grammar and sentence structures from the primary sources have been retained to preserve the integrity of the pioneer point of view and minimize the risk of inaccurate interpretation. If a quoted source is secondary rather than primary, we have tried to identify it as such and place it in historical context. To that end, the editorial talents of Frances A. Smeath were brought on board to check all endnotes against their respective sources. She also monitored the text for internal consistency, chapter to chapter, and continually reviewed primary source content to insure it was accurately and consistently interpreted in the text. Finally, she worked with me on revising the structure of the early chapters to flow in a clearer chronological and geographical sequence. Her insight and expertise were invaluable.

Unless otherwise noted, photographs in this book were supplied by Morris Shirts. Wherever mention is made of religious membership or ordinances, the reference applies to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I would particularly like to acknowledge the help and encouragement of Janet Seegmiller, present curator of Special Collections at the Sherratt Library at Southern Utah University. Randy Dixon of the LDS Church Archives has, throughout the project, been equally supportive, providing the guidance needed to solve a number of key research questions. Valuable assistance was also provided by Eve Weipert, curator at the Iron Mission State Park; Russ Taylor at Perry Special Collections; Jeff Johnson and Val Wilson at the Utah State Archives and Records Service; Kent Powell, field service coordinator of the Utah State Historical Society; LaKay Weber, curator at the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum in Cedar City; Dixie Matheson of the Iron County Recorder’s Office (especially for her painstaking work on chapter 4 documentation); and Russell Shirts, my brother-in-law and Washington County Recorder. York Jones and Rick Fish graciously provided valuable commentary on draft chapters of the project. My husband Randy has been unfailingly helpful in seeing his father’s work to completion, accompanying me on trips to Cedar City, taking additional photographs, reviewing chemical data and tracking down unsolved research problems. Finally, I am most grateful to Heather M. Seferovich and the staff of BYU Studies for their continuing and enthusiastic support.

—Kathryn H. Shirts